A Perfect Day For Bananafish: Theme Analysis

A detailed Summary of A Perfect Day For Bananafish: Theme Analysis

Theme statement: Affluence can foster materialism, thereby creating a life devoid of meaning.

Seymour shows great sensitivity when communicating with youths, but lacks the ability to communicate with the money-oriented adult world. We first meet Seymour on the quiet beach of a Miami resort hotel. Sybil approaches Seymour. Seymour treats young Sybil with the utmost respect and kindness. He is very sympathetic to her youth and tries to communicate with her in the context of a child. When he speaks of the "Little Black Sambo" he speaks as though he is the same age as her, showing his excitement and surprise with the amount of tigers in the story. Seymour seems to understand the pains and struggles of being young. When Sybil becomes jealous of Sharon Lipshutz for sitting with him on the piano bench, she tells Seymour he should have pushed her off of the piano bench. He says "Oh, no. No. I couldn't do that...I'll tell you what I did do, though,"(13). She questions him and he replies that he pretended Sharon was Sybil. He carefully goes about explaining the situation that angered Sybil, rather than brushing her anger off as a childish nuisance. In many of his statements Seymour shows that he

The bananafish story is an account of Seymour's disillusionment with everyone's preoccupation with the superficial. He tells Sybil the sad story of an innocent fish that swims and sees a hole full of bananas. The bananafish goes in and eats so many bananas that he becomes too fat to get out. He concludes the story with "Well I hate to tell you Sybil. They die." (16). In actuality he is relating this story to his own life. He finds himself in a situation where he can get whatever he wants from around him, he is a high member in society and can achieve total satiation. He relates his life to the "banana hole" where innocent fish are deceived by the appearance of a happy future. In general he is very negative about this type of adult world- it appears to be superficial to him. He sees himself destined to die as he goes "alone through the soft, hot sand toward the hotel." (17). A feeling of isolation overcomes him when he realizes he can no longer communicate in the adult world. He thinks his only hope is to escape-permanently. He sits "down on the unoccupied twin bed, [looks] at the girl, [aims] the pistol, and [fires] a bullet through his right temple," (18). The day he finds all the reasons for his death is "a perfect day for bananafish"(15), or a perfect day for death.

isn't satisfied with adult awareness, and more subtly mentions them to Sybil. "'Where's the lady?" Sybil asks. "The lady?' the young man brushed some sand out of his thin hair. 'That's hard to say, Sybi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Muriel Seymour, Seymour Muriel, Sharon Sybil, World Theme, Sharon Lipshutz, Black Sambo, Seymour Seymour, Concurrently Seymour, beautiful world, adult world, piano bench, perfect day, innocent fish, seymour muriel,

Approximate Word count = 998
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English